They, together with the self-sacrificing doctors of each territory, assumed with expertise and stoicism their functions on the red line, where they fought for life.   Photo: Granma newspaper

By Roberto Morejón 

Warm farewells are taking place these days in some Cuban provinces with decreasing cases of COVID-19 after acute outbreaks, as the inhabitants say goodbye, grateful, to the reinforcement doctors who attended them.

In fact, brigades of Cuban health professionals, many of them belonging to the 'Henry Reeve' Contingent, agreed to the call to work in territories of the nation where the hospital system was strained.

Those were times when, in addition to a rising curve of cases, there was a failure in a medical oxygen production plant, and it was essential to resort to emergency solutions to face the deficit of this vital resource.

Before, during and after that event, Cuban doctors residing in several provinces traveled to other provinces with more reports of SARS-Cov-2 infection.

So did hundreds of those members of the army of white coats who are on missions in other countries, including Venezuela and Panama, from where they quickly left for the Caribbean archipelago.

It is a meticulously organized strategy that forced many of those mobilized to dispense with going home to see their families, given the urgency of their task.

Now, when, thanks to the vaccination with their own biologicals, to accurate treatments designed by scientists and health personnel and to the hygienic-sanitary measures adopted, COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Cuba, it is appropriate to pay tribute to the mobilized doctors and nurses.

They, together with the self-sacrificing doctors of each territory, assumed with expertise and stoicism their functions on the red line, where they fought for life.

Special mention should be made of the members of the Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics 'Henry Reeve', a group which, by the way, received the People's Peace Prize, awarded by more than one hundred organizations in the United States.

The group provides medical aid to populations affected by natural disasters and epidemics in other countries and contributes to their recovery.

With vast experience accumulated in scenarios of earthquakes, cyclones, Ebola and other mishaps, the aforementioned specialists put their knowledge and skills at the service of their compatriots.